Why Terra Wash is a safe, effective choice as a soap for residential softwashing
Jeffrey Kirby said
May 21, 2016
I thought I would add my $.02 of advice regarding Terra Wash.
Terra Wash is a great choice for treating/cleaning residential surfaces like vinyl and aluminum siding, stucco, EIFS, concrete sidewalks, wood and composite decks and fences, and many other surfaces, including cedar siding and cedar roofs. The soap, or degreaser, in Terra Wash is a safer, but higher priced, chemical than the soap in many other degreasers and general purpose soaps available at your supplier.
These other products typically contain sodium hydroxide, NaOH, a more caustic, potentially damaging compound. When our primary service was pressure washing, including sidewalk cleanup and parking garage cleaning, a strong, sodium hydroxide degreaser was our best friend! How many houses need grease, oil or tar removed from them? It must be stored in plastic containers because it will etch and dissolve glass. It is also the degreaser in most retail wood strippers, used to remove oil based wood sealers. It is more powerful for removing the black staining/oxidation damage from gutters and downspouts, but is far more likely to also remove the paint. The most extreme case I experienced was COMPLETLEY removing the white paint from an older gutter so that about 16' of gutter had ABSOLUTELY NO WHITE PAINT REMAINING ON IT!!! All of the anodized painted surfaces on any building are prone to paint damage from NaOH as well. You do not need to remove the paint in order to have visible paint damage. And it will not do you the favor of being consistent so that the new paint color is uniform. Further, NaOH left on windows on a hot day, or sprayed directly onto a hot window, can etch the glass, causing irreparable damage. The only solution at that point is to replace the glass.
Sodium Hydroxide is a stronger, cheaper soap. However, when weighed against the potential damage, and training necessary to properly use it, I have chosen to no longer use our sodium hydroxide soap. We began using Terra Wash last year, along with our sodium hydroxide soap, but have since stopped buying it. We now use only Terra Wash.
BTW--we have also used other products, like D-limonene (orange cleaner). A very robust degreaser, but it is also a water-based paint stripper. When I sold bulk industrial chemicals, one of my clients used it to remove dried asphalt from their paving equipment. If you are using an orange cleaner, you are playing with fire! And yes, D-limonene is flammable.
AC Lockyer said
May 22, 2016
Jeff,
Thanks for the endorsement of Terra Wash. Yes it is an alternitive to hydroxide or butal based cleaners / degreasers that pose a higher rish of damage to surfaces as well as safety concerns. The highest value in Terra Wash I believe is the STRONG environmental positioning we have developed it within. SoftWash Systems Good Stewards program keeps Terra Wash and all of our chemicals within a profile of Water Based, Biodegradable, Low VOC & Non-Hazardous. Everyday we have customers making the choice to use companies using our chemicals because of the stand we have made to provide these Good Stewards options in the exterior cleaning world.
Thanks,
AC
Anita Ingram said
May 24, 2016
I have not ordered any of these chemicals as of yet. I've been getting mine from EMS in NC. I mix that chemical as directed, and it does good, except on bad spots. On the bad green or black spots i have to keep reapplying it till it's gone. Is this normal, or will the Tera wash stop that from happening? We do mostly vinyl homes here.
Troy Layman said
May 30, 2016
Anita, I'm not sure what chemicals you are mixing, but you have to be extremely careful mixing chemicals with bleach. If you mix the wrong items with bleach you can release toxic chlorine gas, cause fire or explosions etc. I'm not saying you're doing this, but it is something to keep in mind.
Do you have any pictures of these spots you are referring to so we can see exactly what you are talking about?
One of the best properties of Terra Wash for me is the fact it can dissolve spider webs to where after a short dwell time, spider webs and nests will rinse away with even mediocre water hose pressure and spray nozzle. Green Wash does this too, but not as effectively.
I thought I would add my $.02 of advice regarding Terra Wash.
Terra Wash is a great choice for treating/cleaning residential surfaces like vinyl and aluminum siding, stucco, EIFS, concrete sidewalks, wood and composite decks and fences, and many other surfaces, including cedar siding and cedar roofs. The soap, or degreaser, in Terra Wash is a safer, but higher priced, chemical than the soap in many other degreasers and general purpose soaps available at your supplier.
These other products typically contain sodium hydroxide, NaOH, a more caustic, potentially damaging compound. When our primary service was pressure washing, including sidewalk cleanup and parking garage cleaning, a strong, sodium hydroxide degreaser was our best friend! How many houses need grease, oil or tar removed from them? It must be stored in plastic containers because it will etch and dissolve glass. It is also the degreaser in most retail wood strippers, used to remove oil based wood sealers. It is more powerful for removing the black staining/oxidation damage from gutters and downspouts, but is far more likely to also remove the paint. The most extreme case I experienced was COMPLETLEY removing the white paint from an older gutter so that about 16' of gutter had ABSOLUTELY NO WHITE PAINT REMAINING ON IT!!! All of the anodized painted surfaces on any building are prone to paint damage from NaOH as well. You do not need to remove the paint in order to have visible paint damage. And it will not do you the favor of being consistent so that the new paint color is uniform. Further, NaOH left on windows on a hot day, or sprayed directly onto a hot window, can etch the glass, causing irreparable damage. The only solution at that point is to replace the glass.
Sodium Hydroxide is a stronger, cheaper soap. However, when weighed against the potential damage, and training necessary to properly use it, I have chosen to no longer use our sodium hydroxide soap. We began using Terra Wash last year, along with our sodium hydroxide soap, but have since stopped buying it. We now use only Terra Wash.
BTW--we have also used other products, like D-limonene (orange cleaner). A very robust degreaser, but it is also a water-based paint stripper. When I sold bulk industrial chemicals, one of my clients used it to remove dried asphalt from their paving equipment. If you are using an orange cleaner, you are playing with fire! And yes, D-limonene is flammable.
Thanks for the endorsement of Terra Wash. Yes it is an alternitive to hydroxide or butal based cleaners / degreasers that pose a higher rish of damage to surfaces as well as safety concerns. The highest value in Terra Wash I believe is the STRONG environmental positioning we have developed it within. SoftWash Systems Good Stewards program keeps Terra Wash and all of our chemicals within a profile of Water Based, Biodegradable, Low VOC & Non-Hazardous. Everyday we have customers making the choice to use companies using our chemicals because of the stand we have made to provide these Good Stewards options in the exterior cleaning world.
Thanks,
AC
I have not ordered any of these chemicals as of yet. I've been getting mine from EMS in NC. I mix that chemical as directed, and it does good, except on bad spots. On the bad green or black spots i have to keep reapplying it till it's gone.
Is this normal, or will the Tera wash stop that from happening? We do mostly vinyl homes here.
Do you have any pictures of these spots you are referring to so we can see exactly what you are talking about?
One of the best properties of Terra Wash for me is the fact it can dissolve spider webs to where after a short dwell time, spider webs and nests will rinse away with even mediocre water hose pressure and spray nozzle. Green Wash does this too, but not as effectively.